** readMe **

Paper title:
Does Information Disclosure Reduce Drinking Water Violations in the United States?

******* GENERAL NOTES *******
the replication data/code contains nine DO files (two for generating figures 1 and 2, six for generating tables 1 through 6 as well as results for online appendix tables D1-D7, and a final DO file that details our matching procedure but is not needed to replicate the results). Each DO file indicates the results it generates in the file name and header. The header also lists the input files required to generate the results.

The DO files assume a specific folder structure. To replicate results, please create the following folder structure in whatever root folder you wish to save the results:
root/Input
root/Intermediate
root/LogFiles
root/Output
root/OutputPanel
root/Figures

Before running each DO file, please make sure that the "Input" folder contains the necessary input files listed in the header of the DO file.

Please note that "Table1_systemSummaryStatistics.do" requires two intermediate files generated by "Table6_heterogeneity.do" 

Before running "Table1_systemSummaryStatistics.do", please run "Table6_heterogeneity.do"

******* INPUT DATA *******
90census.dta: 1990 census data

est03ALL.xls: 2003 Poverty and Median Income Estimates - Counties, U.S. Census Bureau, Small Area Estimates Branch, Release date: 10.02.2006

number_mcl.dta: number of MCL violations over time (from Bennear and Olmstead, 2008)

preselections_countyresults.dta: https://library.cqpress.com/elections/download-data.php, last accessed April 29, 2022

pwsidCountiesFY2010.xlsx: see footnote 24 of paper 
pwsidCountiesFY2011.xlsx: see footnote 24 of paper
pwsidCountiesFY2012.xlsx: see footnote 24 of paper
pwsidCountiesFY2013.xlsx: see footnote 24 of paper

stateabbreviations.xlsx: generated manually

waterSystems.dta: community water system information from EPA; derived from a 2014 FOIA request. Note please that we obtained the water violations data reflected in the panels listed below through the same FOIA request.

Note: for more information on data sources, please refer to section 3 of the paper

******* FINAL PANELS *******
Section 3 of the paper describes our general approach for creating the panels listed below.

natlCWS_yr_Panel_mod-small_v2-Match.dta: 
main panel that contains water system information, water violation data, and the results of our matching exercise (described in section 3.3 of the paper and detailed in the createMatchedPanel.do code accompanying this replication data; note, however, that createMatchedPanel.do need not be run in order to replicate results)

natlCWS_yr_Panel_mod.dta:
alternate main panel that does not contain results of our matching procedure, but does contain water system information, water violation data, and additional variables representing violation counts for each individual rule type (e.g. lead and copper rule).

natlCWS_yr_Panel_mod-small.dta:
an alternate panel that includes system and violation information, but not the matching results. This panel includes an additional variable needed to generate table 3.



